1950 Monaco Grand Prix
Juan Manuel Fangio (Alfa Romeo) |Time = 1:50.2 |Driver 2 = Juan Manuel Fangio (Alfa Romeo) |Time 2 = 1:51.0 |First = Juan Manuel Fangio (Alfa Romeo) |Second = Alberto Ascari (Ferrari) |Third = Louis Chiron (Maserati) |image = |name = 1950 Monaco Grand Prix}} The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 21 May 1950 at Monaco. This race was the second round of 1950 World Drivers' Championship. The race, contested over 100 laps at an overall distance of 318.1 km (197.1 mi) was won by Juan Manuel Fangio for the Alfa Romeo team after starting from pole position. Alberto Ascari finished 2nd for Ferrari and Louis Chiron finished 3rd for Maserati. Report Pre-race The Scuderia Ferrari team made their World Championship debut at Monaco. The team was run by Enzo Ferrari the former Alfa Romeo Principal in the 30s who lead the team to greatness. Now with his own team Ferrari was expected to be the biggest threat to the dominant Alfas. Italians Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi and Frenchman Raymond Sommer were chosen to make up the team. The Simca-Gordini team also made their debut. Run by Amédée Gordini with the two frenchman Robert Manzon and Maurice Trintignant at the wheels of the two Type 15s. Qualifying For the first qualifying session at Monco it was wet. Alfredo Piàn crashed his car heavily during the session and was unable to participate in the race. Juan Manuel Fangio took pole ahead of Giuseppe Farina and the impressive José Froilán González who was in a Maserati racing for Scuderia Achille Vazzi. He prevailed in the wet but his teammate Alfredo Piàn did not. The privately entered Talbot-Lago of Philippe Étancelin was 4th with Alfa driver Luigi Fagioli 5th and the Ferraris of Villoresi and Ascari in 6th and 7th with Sommer down in 9th. Race At the start of the race the track was wet due to a rain shower earlier in the morning. Peter Whitehead's private Ferrari failed to start the race due to engine issues that had troubled him all weekend. At the start Fangio made the best start ahead of Farina who spun his wheels up. As the cars made there way around the first lap, little did they know their had been a tidal wave at the Tabac corner and it had flooded some of the track. As the drivers entered Tabac, Nino Farina who was running second spun his Alfa on the wet track and was rammed by José Froilán González and in turn, he was rammed by Luigi Fagioli. This caused a multi-car pile up meaning that Louis Rosier, Robert Manzon, Emmanuel de Graffenried, Maurice Trintignant, Cuth Harrison, Franco Rol and Harry Schell all had to retire. Most os the cars and drivers got away unscathed but González had had oil spilt over him in the accident which badly burned him and would keep him out for the next couple of races. Franco Rol also was injured and suffered a broken wrist which would put him out of contention for awhile as well. Only 9 cars had survived the incident and Ferrari was the only team to not lose at least one of their cars in the first lap incident, Villoresi and Ascari quickly overtook Philippe Étancelin for third and the two began a hard battle for second. Étançelin retired later in the race with an oil leak, which paved the way for the third Ferrari of Sommer to take fourth place behind his two teammates but he was under pressure for the place from local driver and racing veteran Louis Chiron. Luigi Villoresi who had stalled early in the race and had manged to negotiate the mele at Tabac had a strong day fighting back to second but it came to a sad end when his axle broke thus leaving the second place open to team mate Ascari. After a long hard battle Louis Chiron had finally managed to get his Maserati past Raymond Sommer and he moved into third place where he stayed for the remainder of the Grand Prix and took a podium finish in front of his home crowd. The race however was dominated by Fangio who saw absolutely no challenge from any of his rivals with his teammates being taken out on the first lap and showed Ferrari had work to do if they were going to catch the Alfas. Monaco (29-72).jpg|Circuit 1950monacogp-luigivilloresi(ferrari125).jpg|Ferrari made it's World Championship debut Trmon1950.jpg|Chaos at the Tabac corner Monaco 1950 podium.jpg|Podium Classification Qualifying Race Drivers' Championship standings after the race * Note: Only the top five positions are listed. Only the best 4 results counted towards the Championship. References #http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Monaco_Grand_Prix #http://www.statsf1.com/en/1950/monaco.aspx #http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr002.html Category:1950 Races Category:Monaco Races Category:Races